Hydrocarbons, and specifically olefins such as ethylene (C2H4), are typically building blocks used to produce a wide range of products, for example, break-resistant containers and packaging materials. Currently, for industrial scale applications, ethylene can be produced by steam cracking, or by heating natural gas condensates and petroleum distillates, which include ethane and higher hydrocarbons, and the produced ethylene is separated from a product mixture by using gas separation processes. However, steam cracking uses expensive furnace technology which generally involves the use of metal coils for a reactor converting ethane in a mixture with water vapor to ethylene. Due to the frequent blockage of these metal coils by coke fragments, ethane steam cracking processes require periodic cleaning of the metal coils.
Thus, there is an ongoing need for the development of ethane dehydrogenation processes that can increase the production of ethylene.